Republican state legislature in Wisconsin making a power grab

[treee]

Who needs checks and balances anyway?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/opinion/wisconsin-legislature-republicans-evers.html

Quote:released five bills that grant sweeping new authority to the Legislature at the expense of both Mr. Evers and Wisconsin’s new attorney general, Josh Kaul, who also happens to be a Democrat. Drafted in secret, the legislation was rushed to the Joint Finance Committee on Monday for its only public hearing. Legislators and outraged citizens scrambled all weekend to parse more than forty serious changes to state law embedded in the 141 pages of text. The legislature is expected to vote on the bills on Tuesday and Mr. Walker has indicated an openness to signing legislation of this stripe.

No one is really bothering to hide the purpose of this lame duck legislation: to continue the Republicans’ hold on state government, even at the expense of core democratic principles like respect for the separation of powers and majority rule. The legislation would nullify the decision-making of Wisconsin’s voters, who rejected Republicans for every statewide office in the November midterms.

The lame duck legislation would, for example, prevent Mr. Evers from fulfilling a campaign promise to take Wisconsin out of a multistate lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. It will also diminish the governor’s control over the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, a scandal-ridden public-private agency created by Mr. Walker to foster job creation, by giving the legislature an equal number of appointees to the board as the governor and revoking the governor’s power to appoint the board’s chief executive.

ADVERTISEMENT


Mr. Evers campaigned on closing the agency, the subject of critical audits by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, which revealed that the economic development corporation had mismanaged millions of dollars in loans. The agency also attracted controversy after leading the effort to entice Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing contractor, to build its first American plant in Wisconsin, at a cost to taxpayers now reaching more than $4.5 billion dollars in subsidies.

The lame duck legislation will also weaken the attorney general’s office by eliminating the solicitor general’s office in the state’s Department of Justice. And it will take away the attorney general’s power to determine how to spend settlement winnings and give that power to the Legislature. The bill also gives the Legislature the right to effectively act as its own attorney general by granting the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization the power to hire its own special counsel if it determines it is in the “interests of the state” to do so. (Both Mr. Vos and Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader, who is collaborating closely with Mr. Vos, are members of the committee.)

Apart from stripping powers from other branches of government, the legislation aims to decrease voter turnout by imposing a two-week limit on early voting, despite the fact that a federal judge struck down a similar Wisconsin law in 2016 on the ground that it was racially discriminatory. When Democrats swept statewide offices in November, it was mostly the result of record turnout in Dane and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin’s two largest, both of which allow early voting to begin roughly six weeks before an election.

“The legislature is the most representative branch in government,” Mr. Vos and Mr. Fitzgerald wrote in a joint statement after the bills were released. It was meant to serve as a justification, but in Wisconsin, at least since 2011, that has not been true: That year, at a law office across the street from the state capitol, Republicans drew new redistricting maps, in secret and without input from a single Democrat or member of the public. In 2016, a federal court ruled the maps so excessively partisan as to be unconstitutional, the first time a court had made such a ruling on partisan grounds in thirty years. (Earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.)

ADVERTISEMENT


Nationally, Democrats won more than 300 state legislative seats in November, but the party gained only one seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly despite winning 54 percent of the aggregate statewide vote. That leaves Democrats with 36 out of 99 seats. (Since the 2011 redistricting, they have not held more than 39 of 99 seats.) In the State Senate, Democrats actually lost a seat, giving Republicans a 19-14 margin.

The lame duck legislation also takes aim at lowering turnout for a State Supreme Court election scheduled for April 2020. One measure would move the primary to March in order to avoid its being held on the same day as what is likely to be a crucial Democratic presidential primary. The cost of adding this new election is nearly seven million dollars, and the proposed date would make for three elections in three consecutive months.

Last week, Dane County’s clerk announced on social media that 60 of the state’s 72 county clerks opposed the move. Mr. Fitzgerald admitted to reporters that the rationale for moving the election was to give a “better chance” to Daniel Kelly, whom Mr. Walker appointed to fill a vacant seat. Judge Kelly’s election to a full ten-year term is essential to preserving the 4-3 conservative advantage on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Like many Republican policies adopted in Wisconsin over the past eight years, taking power from a Democratic executive is part of a national conservative strategy. In December 2016, a few weeks after the election of Democratic governor Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Republican legislative leaders significantly weakened the state’s governorship. They went so far that at the beginning of this year’s legislative session, a reporter asked Phil Berger, the Republican Senate President Pro Tempore, and Tim Moore, the speaker of the House, if they planned to take away any more of Governor Cooper’s powers. “Does he still have any?” Mr. Berger joked. “If you have any suggestions, let us know,” Mr. Moore added.

ADVERTISEMENT


In Michigan, where Democrats also won the governor’s and attorney general’s offices last month, the Republican-controlled legislature is debating divesting powers from both offices, including the attorney general’s oversight of state campaign finance law.

Perhaps fortified by the Republicans’ gerrymandered advantage, Mr. Vos has been notably defiant. “There’s no doubt about it that the voters across Wisconsin affirmed our record, the record of our party, and the agenda that we have put forward over the past eight years,” he told the Assembly Republican Caucus a few days after the election despite Republicans losing all the statewide offices. “We are the ones that were given a mandate to govern.”

I spoke to Mr. Evers last Friday, just before the bills were released. “I also have a mandate to govern,” Mr. Evers told me, in response to Mr. Vos’s comments. “But we have to work together and solve things for the people of Wisconsin. What Speaker Vos says in caucus, I understand that: he has to rally his troops.”

But after learning about the scope of the bills, Mr. Evers was more assertive. “I view this as a repudiation of the last election,” he told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I will take any steps possible to assure the people of Wisconsin that I will not invalidate those votes. And frankly, I’m encouraging citizens across the state of Wisconsin to help me in that effort.”

ADVERTISEMENT


Mr. Vos and Mr. Fitzgerald seem confident they can turn their self-proclaimed mandate into another chapter in their party’s most enduring achievement: engineering its own dominance. Like their successful efforts to gut Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws, decimate the labor movement and weaken voting rights by enacting one of the country’s strictest voter ID laws, seizing powers from the state’s newly elected governor and attorney general promises to further tilt the balance in the Republicans’ favor.

After eight years of relentless attacks on Wisconsin’s progressive political traditions, its state government has been transformed into something that is hard to recognize as a democracy. If these new bills pass, it will become harder still.

[Belsnickel]

It's easy to say that they are subverting the will of the people, but the Republicans will maintain a majority in both chambers in the new year. I think this is shady as hell and very undemocratic, but this is what makes governing so difficult. What do the results mean with regards to a mandate from the people?

[*michaelsean*]

They should just make Evers run for governor three times every election cycle.

[Yojimbo]

(12-04-2018, 09:46 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: It's easy to say that they are subverting the will of the people, but the Republicans will maintain a majority in both chambers in the new year. I think this is shady as hell and very undemocratic, but this is what makes governing so difficult. What do the results mean with regards to a mandate from the people?

Wisconsin is one of the most heavily Gerrymandered states. Democrats won something like 56% of the vote yet only 36% of the legislature. So, I wouldn’t say the Republicans got a mandate, at all.

http://amp.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/article222308830.html

[*michaelsean*]

(12-04-2018, 12:51 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Wisconsin is one of the most heavily Gerrymandered states. Democrats won something like 56% of the vote yet only 36% of the legislature. So, I wouldn’t say the Republicans got a mandate, at all.

http://amp.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/article222308830.html

It's gerrymandered at the state level?  

[Belsnickel]

(12-04-2018, 12:51 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Wisconsin is one of the most heavily Gerrymandered states. Democrats won something like 56% of the vote yet only 36% of the legislature. So, I wouldn’t say the Republicans got a mandate, at all.

http://amp.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/article222308830.html

Interesting.

(12-05-2018, 10:10 AM)michaelsean Wrote: It's gerrymandered at the state level?  

That is the case according to the article, which isn't at all surprising. We're gerrymandered at the state level, here, as well. Legislators in Virginia get to draw their own districts, essentially.

[Belsnickel]

Saw this and wanted to share it on this thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/where-the-gop-cant-win-elections-it-changes-the-rules/2018/12/04/292a1f46-f800-11e8-863c-9e2f864d47e7_story.html?utm_term=.70236dc858f3

[Au165]

Yea, that isn't good.

[GMDino]

Just so you know where their priorities are:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/05/wisconsin-lame-duck-legislation/2212682002/

Quote:Wisconsin Republicans passed legislation Wednesday that will diminish the powers of the governor and attorney general, and limit early voting, before Democrat Tony Evers takes office on Jan. 7. 


The measure passed the state Senate early Wednesday by one vote before being approved by the General Assembly. Outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he intends to sign the legislation. 



The Republicans held overnight negotiations among themselves behind closed doors in lame-duck session to iron out the details of the legislation. 



They also tried to pass a bill to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, but that measure failed Wednesday. 

[Belsnickel]

This sort of thing happened in a southern state, one of the Carolinas I think, in recent history as well. What is up with Republican legislatures doing this when they lose the governorship?

[GMDino]

(12-05-2018, 03:03 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This sort of thing happened in a southern state, one of the Carolinas I think, in recent history as well. What is up with Republican legislatures doing this when they lose the governorship?

North Carolina.

And it's pretty obvious that it is a petty power grab because they don't like losing.

They think they govern the best.  Period.

The limiting of the early voting is the key...but I read that they tried it two years ago and judge overturned it.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(12-05-2018, 03:03 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This sort of thing happened in a southern state, one of the Carolinas I think, in recent history as well. What is up with Republican legislatures doing this when they lose the governorship?

It is not exclusive to Republicans, or state-level politics for that matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/politics/barack-obama-last-minute-final-actions-donald-trump/index.html  (And that's even the CNN version.)

It really seems like people on both sides get that last minute "Go F yourself" action in, do the things that would have been too controversial while they were still in office for a reasonable time period, or give a little regulatory treat to their financial/political supporters.

It happens so often there's a term for it "Midnight Regulations".

Obama did it, Geroge W before him, Clinton before him, etc.. all the way back to Jimmy Carter.

[Belsnickel]

(12-05-2018, 03:15 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It is not exclusive to Republicans, or state-level politics for that matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/politics/barack-obama-last-minute-final-actions-donald-trump/index.html  (And that's even the CNN version.)

It really seems like people on both sides get that last minute "Go F yourself" action in, do the things that would have been too controversial while they were still in office for a reasonable time period, or give a little regulatory treat to their financial/political supporters.

It happens so often there's a term for it "Midnight Regulations".

Obama did it, Geroge W before him, Clinton before him, etc.. all the way back to Jimmy Carter.

While that is something similar, it isn't the same thing. Making those last minute actions isn't as much of a slap in the face to the democratic process as working to limit the power of a co-equal branch of government because it will no longer be as friendly to your interests. I don't agree with those presidential actions, either, but it's just not on the same level.

[jj22]

I think what they are doing is disgraceful, but voters don't care. They just don't hold Republicans to the standards they do Dems which is why they get away with what we are seeing here and in NC.

[Yojimbo]

(12-05-2018, 03:15 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It is not exclusive to Republicans, or state-level politics for that matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/politics/barack-obama-last-minute-final-actions-donald-trump/index.html  (And that's even the CNN version.)

It really seems like people on both sides get that last minute "Go F yourself" action in, do the things that would have been too controversial while they were still in office for a reasonable time period, or give a little regulatory treat to their financial/political supporters.

It happens so often there's a term for it "Midnight Regulations".

Obama did it, Geroge W before him, Clinton before him, etc.. all the way back to Jimmy Carter.

NPR has an “expert” on the subject Monday morning. The host asked the expert if it was just Republicans that do this. His response was no, both sides do this. So, the host asked for an example when a Democrat controlled legislature tried to limit the powers of an incoming Republican governor and he couldn’t actually provide any examples.

[Belsnickel]

(12-05-2018, 05:08 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: NPR has an “expert” on the subject Monday morning. The host asked the expert if it was just Republicans that do this. His response was no, both sides do this. So, the host asked for an example when a Democrat controlled legislature tried to limit the powers of an incoming Republican governor and he couldn’t actually provide any examples.

Yeah, those are different things. "Midnight regulations", what the expert was likely talking about, can be undone, often with ease. When you have this sort of subversion of democracy where you are intentionally handicapping a successor it's a different level. It runs counter to the peaceful transition of power that our country is founded upon. I said Republicans because that is who I have seen do it. If Democrats did it then I would say everyone. If I was ever around anyone in the party advocating for it, I would speak against it in a heartbeat.

[Yojimbo]

(12-05-2018, 05:53 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Yeah, those are different things. "Midnight regulations", what the expert was likely talking about, can be undone, often with ease. When you have this sort of subversion of democracy where you are intentionally handicapping a successor it's a different level. It runs counter to the peaceful transition of power that our country is founded upon. I said Republicans because that is who I have seen do it. If Democrats did it then I would say everyone. If I was ever around anyone in the party advocating for it, I would speak against it in a heartbeat.

There needs to be some kind of moratorium on passing new legislation by a lame duck congress/executive.

November and December, no new laws.

[Belsnickel]

(12-05-2018, 05:58 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: There needs to be some kind of moratorium on passing new legislation by a lame duck congress/executive.

November and December, no new laws.

I disagree. It is still the job of the government that is seated to govern their jurisdiction. There have been norms in place that have existed for a long time that prevented things from getting out of hand like this, but making them harder rules could be detrimental if things needed to be done during that time frame. The policy that would need to be put in place to take into account all possible contingencies would be complex and burdensome.

What we need is the people to demand more from their politicians and for us to elect officials that respect democratic norms.

[fredtoast]

So can't the new majority legislature just change the law back once they are sworn in?

[Belsnickel]

(12-05-2018, 08:08 PM)fredtoast Wrote: So can't the new majority legislature just change the law back once they are sworn in?

The legislature isn't changing hands, only the governorship.